Friday, August 31, 2012

We have had SPEKULATION in this blog before, with the fine album"Smoke `em if you got `em" (2011), remixing and rapping to The Jason Parker Quartet and Nick Drake. Now he´s here again, with his EP "Because We Never Know When", where he works on "Songs and poems for solo cello" by Philip Glass!

The music is commissioned for Serendip Modern Dance Company, and SPEKULATION describes it like this: "The new EP combines samples of Glass’s compositions with synthesizers and drum machines to create a continuous mix of bass-heavy music".

Thursday, August 30, 2012

Oh my! Please check out Stian Westerhus´ new album: "The Matriarch And The Wrong Kind Of Flowers" (Rune Grammofon 2012)! He "plays guitar" and sings (!), making soundscapes that are hard to believe. Warm, cold, sad and mighty moods will wash over you, while you listen. (Hard to describe, as you will understand!)

The music is partly recorded at the Emanuel Vigeland mausoleum in Oslo, with it´s massive reverb, and Westerhus even makes it sound like there are violins and organs in here too.

Mostly improvised I believe, but there are melodies, and nods to the music history too. Listen to "Shine", with the guitar sounding like it is made of glass or ice, and see if you will imagine "Pink Floyd on ice" too (more glacier than Disney I believe!).

The album should have been released on black vinyl, with 100 copies extra on blue vinyl to satisfy the crazy collectors. But a mistake was done, and all of the albums were pressed on blue vinyl, forcing Rune Grammofon to order 100 copies on red vinyl for the collectors! Fun heh? Mp3s can´t compete with this!

Tuesday, August 28, 2012

The Norwegian record company SOFA released their first vinyl record a couple of days ago.
And we get no less than a double album by the saxophone-trumpet duo Streifenjunko.

Eivind Lønning (tp) and Espen Reinertsen (tp) play really slooow improv, with drone like parts, sirene sounds, beautiful melodies, lots of breathing, and sometimes it sounds as they play the same instrument, mixing their sounds good.

Eivind Lønning and Espen Reinertsen have been in this blog before, just check out Koboku Senjû. The title on this new album "Sval torv" means something like "Cool peat", while Koboku Senjû´s album was called "Selektiv hogst" ("Selective logging") (SOFA 2010) and the two musicians also played on the SOFA album "Varianter av døde trær" ("Variants of dead trees") (SOFA 2008).
All titles fitting well with this slow moving, organic music.

Play loud in a room meant for music listening! I usually like listening on my iPod on the streets and inside buses, not minding the blending of music and sounds of the city, but too much of "Sval torv" gets lost.

Saturday, August 25, 2012

I seem to post a lot about the Henie Onstad Art Center (see some of the previous posts), but we´ll have another one too!
28 October the art center will open the exhibition "I Want the Beatles to Play at my Art Center", something Sonia Henie probably (?)said.

In connection with the exhibition a publication called "Mot det totale museum" ("Towards the total musem"), a double DVD and a double LP with previously unreleased material will be released.

A picture of Soft Machine illustrates an article in this autumn´s program paper and the museum´s web sites, but I don´t really don´t know if that means we will get more from Soft Machine´s visit in 1971.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Rare Norwegian record gets new relase on Prisma Records! POPOFONI (Sonet 1973) features works by Arne Nordheim, Terje Rypdal, Kåre Kolberg, Gunnar Sønstevold and Alfred Janson, with music by an extended Jan Garbarek Quintet.

And make sure you read the full story behind this record over at Prisma´s blog!

Sunday, August 19, 2012

I have been playing Antony and The Johnsons´ latest album repeatedly for about a week now. "Cut the world" (Secretly Canadian/Rough Trade) was recorded live in Copenhagen with The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, and we get very fine versions of songs from Antony´s previous albums (Cripple And The Starfish, You Are My Sister, Swanlights, Epilepsy Is Dancing, Another World, Kiss My Name, I Fell In Love With A Dead Boy, Rapture, The Crying Light, Twilight), and the title track "Cut the world", written for Robert Wilson´s piece "The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic".

Willem Defoe played in Robert Wilson´s piece, and is also one of the two main characters in the intense and brutal video for "Cut the World" (Directed by Nabil), with Carice Van Houten.

Prepare yourselves for the track "Future feminism", a speech "Addressing the affects of patriarchy on the global ecology, Antony explores the possibility of shifting towards feminine systems of governance in a gesture to restore our world" according to the record company.

The album is available as mp3, CD, or beautiful double vinyl with CD or download code. Way to do it!

Thursday, August 16, 2012

According to The Wire there will be two concerts in memory of Lol Coxhill in London this autumn. These artists are mentioned: Eddie Prevost, John Edwards, Phil Minton, Trevor Watts, Tony Bevan, Pat Thomas, David Toop, Mark Sanders, Veryan Weston and others (Cecil Sharp House 19 September) and Steve Beresford, Veryan Weston and Dave Stephens (more to come) (Cafe Oto 31 October).

On Mike Westbrook and Gail Brand´s web sites I also spot: Gail Brand, Roger Turner, John Russell, Ollie Brice, LIO and Mike Westbrook Brass Band (to perform at the Cecil Sharp House concert).

On the video you see and hear Lol Coxhill with Guillaume Viltard in 2010.

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Finally, The Unthanks have released vol. 2 in their "Diversions"-series: "The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band" (Rabble Rouser Music 2012).
We get old folk tunes with brass arrangements, never before recorded by The Unthanks, and several tunes from previous albums by The Unthanks (and Rachel Unthank & The Winterset) arranged for brass.

Even if i don´t jump for joy to all tunes here (a. o. the show version of "Queen of Hearts"), most of the music is absolutely beautiful. To cite what Adrian McNally writes in the liner notes: "Folk song and brass music may be different musical disciplines, but often both were designed to speak for and be spoken by the same people. Similar heartbeats, similar content". Sounds true!

The video below is "The King of Rome" (the album´s opening track) filmed at the Cambridge Folk Festival 2012.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012

I have mentioned Håkon Kornstad´s jazz and opera project several times in the blog (recently from Moldejazz), and here he is again with Tenor Battle at the Øya Festival (Oslo) this summer, doing "Marechiare" by Tosti (1886).

Sunday, August 12, 2012

If you are into Peter Brötzmann, you better check out his "Solo + Trio Roma", recorded at Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville in May 2011, and released on Canadian Victo (2012).

You get one CD with varied and fine solo playing by Peter Brötzmann (ts, as, clar), where he is ending the show by playing Ornette Coleman´s "Lonely Woman", and one CD with Paal Nilssen-Love (dr) and Massimo Pupillo (b) from a concert where the walls must have been shaking!
The 69 minutes long "Music marries room to room" is a noisy and energetic party, and they are not relaxing much in the encore either.

The music was recorded a couple of months after Brötzmann celebrated his 70th birthday!
Great stuff!

Friday, August 10, 2012

I don´t know if many of you have been waiting for some Mariachi here in Wyatt and Stuff, but finally, this Friday we´re on!
How about Mariachi Mexteca and Hugh Cornwell doing Stranglers´ "Golden Brown"? I thought so!

Thursday, August 9, 2012

I have not been swimming at all this rainy summer, but these last days I have been bathing in ambient/electronica from Celer (Will Long) and Machinefabriek (Rutger Zuydervelt).

They both seem to have released a whole bunch of records, but I have to admit they are new to me.
I have checked out several of Celer´s albums, and like the floating and melancholic mood of the music, like on "Evaporate and wonder" and "Lightness and irresponsibility", and his use of samplings from movies (i believe!), as the Japanese chat on "Redness and perplexity".

To me, ambient music may last forever, when I´m in the mood, but Machinefabriek and Celer made it fit the 7" format too!
Get yourselves the beautiful "Hei"/"Sou", either the digital version or the limited vinyl edition (250 copies. It´s even on Soundcloud.

Sunday, August 5, 2012

The Thing is Paal Nilssen-Love (dr), Mats Gustafsson (sax) and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten (b). You all knew that. Most of you also know this is one of the toughest trios around, but have you heard their new double vinyl on No Business, with Barry Guy (b)?

It was released some months ago, and only 600 copies are pressed, so just get one as soon as possible. Seems like there is no digital release.

How many people buy albums like this? 600 copies might not be that few, or what do you think? "Limited edition" releases often make me shop, but then I see the same records for sale several years later (still no regrets from me!).

The album is called "Metal!", and the tracks (except a cover of Lightning Bolt´s "Ride the sky") are named after metals, and are organized after rising atomic numbers, from Lanthanum (track one) (57) to Dysprosium (66).

I have probably mentioned this several times, but I really like The Thing when they go full speed, and we get that, but also lots of more relaxed improv (if "relaxed" may be used about The Thing?).
My favorites are two duo improvisations (the whole of side 2) with Barry Guy and Ingebrigt Håker Flaten ("Praseodymium"), and Mats Gustafsson and Paal Nilssen-Love ("Neodymium").

The recording was done in Saint Catherine´s Church in Vilnius, and please watch the two videos below.
You might also benefit from a close study of The Perioddc Table, for a full understanding of this music.

Saturday, August 4, 2012

Pan Rec and Trost Rec will release a benefit concert film with Peter Brötzmann Chicago Tentet and guests, from the Music Unlimited Festival (Wels, Austria) 2011.
Proceeds from the concert and film go to the Japanese organization "Save Takata" and to "Project Fukushima!" (launched by among others Yoshihide Otomo).

Thursday, August 2, 2012

It has been festival times in Edinburgh again, and at the Fringe an installation called "7 X 7" by Jean Pierre Muller was exhibited. Robert Wyatt has made music for "7 X 7".

As if this was not enough, Robert Wyatt attended a concert with Archie Shepp and Tom McClung, where they played his piece live.

Check out great pictures of Robert Wyatt and Archie Shepp by Marc Marnie over at Flickr, both of them here and a Wyatt portrait here.

From the Edinburgh Festival Guide:
"This year's Fringe sees Shepp contributing to Jean Pierre Muller's 7 x 7 Street, a sound and art installation which also features music by Robert Wyatt, Nile Rodgers, Terry Riley, Mulatu Astatke, Kasin and Sean O'Hagan. To launch this project, Shepp will be performing a special duo set with pianist Tom McClung in the unusual setting of Summerhall's former dissection lecture theatre".

"Robert Wyatt will be in attendance on the night and Shepp has been asked to play his contribution to 7x7. It's not Shepp's first encounter with Wyatt's music. In 1982, Shepp played on a version of 'Memories', a song written by Hugh Hopper but popularised by Wyatt, with the young Whitney Houston as part of producer Bill Laswell's Material project".

In this interview you may also learn that Archie Shepp and Robert Wyatt first met when they were honored at the University of Liège in 2009. Alfreda Benge´s pictures from that happening in this old blog post.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Are you going to Oslo this August? You will have to make some choices about what concerts to visit. You might want to visit not only the Oslo Jazzfestival (13 - 18 August), but also the exciting Blow Out! festival at the venue MIR (15 - 18 August).